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Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Paulson's hot dog vendors to get a raise

And although this story is maddeningly sketchy about the economics of it all, it appears that the taxpayers of the City of Portland will be paying at least part of it.

Ditto for the people who work for the parking mafia. And security guards and custodians employed by private companies that contract with the city. And people who work for contractors with the parks bureau.

Just how many non-city employees' paychecks is the city topping off? Anybody know?

Comments (7)

The best way to combat this economic divide is to get an education and raise oneself up. I hope the 20 year old father of 2 quoted in the WW story is going to college as well as working as a parking lot attendant at $9.50 and hour. The story states he must "make do" with such a low wage. Not so! Get your thinking cap on and fire up those brain cells.

The 20-year-old father of two toddlers must make do with $9.50 an hour.

News flash: anybody paid minimum wage to $9.50 an hour makes less than this gentleman and nobody is even considering setting a "fair wage" for them.

In the past, nobody - employer or employee - expected that anybody could make a living on a single parking attendant's, usher's, school secretary's, or ticket vendor's income. The secretaries employed where I attended high school took the jobs to bring a little extra income home in a working two-parent household.

Guaranteeing one "fair wage" for city employees and not for anybody else adds insult to injury since the low-wage earners in the private sector are often employed doing work that is of a higher caliber than that of an usher, parking attendant or ticket vendor, are paid less and - from their less-than-"fair wage" income is taken the money to boost the salaries of city employees.

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